#vsmp crit

[that-truant-heart]

Idk man but the more time passes, the less I can see the vsmp finale as a real compromise in anything other than name. One (1) person walked out human, out of at least seven who wanted to. It feels like a token effort, which makes it really difficult to take the stated themes of redemption and cooperation and healing seriously. The vampires won, guys.

[that-truant-heart]

I guess the reason that I'm so adamant that Scott Goldsmith didn't meaningfully change is less that I don't think it's possible or the evidence points unilaterally to that conclusion, it's that it would be bad storytelling if his redemption was genuine. Yeah, mcrp is susceptible to this kind of thing because of improv, but redemption arcs aren't easy to pull off! You need a) your audience to be invested in the redemptive character, b) set up and c) some kind of amends made for the harm done. A) is presumably taken care of for those who watched Scott's pov, but due to the format, there's no guarantee of that, which means b) and c) are even more important. Both of which, you might notice, are almost completely absent from Scott's character arc. And that's not even getting into the characters who might have needed him dead for their own arcs.

As for the idea that Oakhurst was just the beginning of his learning empathy and he actually redeemed himself by not eating anyone over the next two hundred years, be fucking for real. Having the main antagonist of a story redeem himself entirely off-screen, post-canon, is just not a viable option in any form of media, no matter what your themes are.

But if his change of heart was a facade, the lack of set up and reparations don't detract from the story anymore; on the contrary, they support the tragedy and horror of it. Everyone in the story can swallow Scott's redemption; hell, he can believe it himself. He's so much more charming and convincing than his victims, after all. It's up to the audience to decide whether being convincing is the same as being right.

[the-somwthing]

I liked him because he was evil and fun and a monster in a dramatic disney villain kinda way

Then I got into the character arc of him getting attached to Shelby and then Avid because I'm a sucker for a selfish unfeeling villain learning to feel thanks to others

And then I was happy that trough cooperation they had found a way to have so many characters I also liked survive in a way not even Owen expected

And finally I was happy he survived because that way I can imagine him going trough the process in those years before the 2005 timeskip. Actually working to become a better person instead of dying like Empires Scott escaping his mistakes by dying and fixing everything or Double Life Scott escaping how he treated Pearl with a short corny speech and then dying or The rest of the life series Scott that died for their teammates at the last second.

Because I'm more interested in the satisfaction that comes from him having to deal with his mistakes for possibly centuries then the brief satisfaction that him dying would have given me. Especially since I also liked Shelby and her being upset would have decreased the happyness of him dying.

And the 2005 timeskip was cute... I like that Goldsmith because It's sweet to me that he and Drift and Shelby are roomates. I like it

I guess in short I like Goldsmiths in different ways or that the reason why I liked him evolved as the story did. That makes sense I think.

Those are just my feelings of course, I'm sure not every Goldsmith fan will agree and you almost definitely won't agree with me either but I thought "Might as well try to share my opinion."

I was not wrong when I said every single time someone says “I hate Goldsmith” a Goldsmith Fan will come out to defend him no matter the situation. I will say it’s fairly justified in this case specifically but my god lol

Do you want me to debunk this? Are you hoping my mind will be changed? I can’t debunk it cuz it’s an opinion. It won’t change my mind cuz it goes against MY opinion.

But if you WANT my thoughts on it (which you surely do since you sent it to me)… this “satisfaction” that his plot gives you is like… practically nonexistent. We don’t SEE him grow as a person. I am NOT satisfied by IMAGINING him living with guilt he DOES NOT EVER SHOW. I WOULD be satisfied by his death more as an Apo and Pyro fan. Hell, even some Shelby fans would disagree with Scott Living being Good for her.

He just. DOES NOT deal with his mistakes in the series. Nor in the epilogue. It’s just stupid imo. It’s not as satisfying as people like to say it is. I agree that characters dying for redemption or whatever is kind of stupid but like whatever tf VSMP’s ending was was FAR stupider.

Also Scott didn’t even like “learn how to feel” for like… a good reason nor did he ever really SHOW any actual results for his supposedly learned feelings. He is like the LEAST satisfyingly written character that people PRETEND is written well because “you can fill in the blanks yourself” WHEN YOU RLLY CANNOT NOR SHOULD THE SERIES FORCE YOU TO TRY.

Also your feelings towards him changing alongside how the story changed is exactly the problem imo. His entire fanbase is built upon temporary character plots. You’re meant to enjoy how evil he is, until he decides a tragic love story is better, then you’re meant to ignore the evilness and feel what’s happening in the moment instead. Then you’re meant to ignore the fact that he didn’t actually CHANGE at all because the redemption arc seems really cool in the moment. It is ALL temporary character gratification that carries him. The fact that people make a billion contradictory excuses that don’t hold up for why they like him exactly proves my point.

I’m sorry but if ur gonna put a LONG ask in my inbox after I posted literally about how I don’t think his fans know wtf they’re talking about, then I’m gonna tell you that I don’t think you know wtf you’re talking about.

I just. I really wish yall would say “I like a lot of things about his character I just wish it was executed better” because that’s basically my main problem, his character was executed SOOO poorly, but everyone jumps as the chance to defend it like it was actually peak writing, just because they like him. I DONT CARE IF YOU LIKE HIM!!! YOU CAN LIKE POORLY WRITTEN CHARACTERS!!! STOP TRYING TO CONVINCE PEOPLE WHO DONT LIKE HOW POORLY WRITTEN HE IS THAT THEYRE WRONG!!!

[the-somwthing]

Honestly I think Goldsmith is the worst written character in all of vsmp solely because it seems like you either hate his character OR you say a bunch of things that imply you don’t ACTUALLY like his character. You can’t convince me he’s a good character when the response to saying “I hate him he sucks” is “oh but he’s a VILLAIN you’re not SUPPOSED to like him he’s MEANT to be irredeema- I- I mean unlikable” (he gets a redemption arc and friends, this argument makes no sense) or “well actually he literally wasn’t even bad like when you think about it he was actually a way better guy than most people” (I want to say this is an even worse argument but honestly the first one pmo so bad). Literally every Goldsmith fan I see is one of either “he did bad things but he’s actually good!!!” or “he’s evil and that’s the POINT!!! I like him because he’s HEARTLESS!!!” and I just genuinely cannot see why they like him. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s fair to like the character BUT without saying anything about missed potential or a botched execution on what you think the character was going for, it feels disingenuous to me?? Cuz like. I just feel like OBJECTIVELY this character sucked considering the fans can’t even agree on whether or not he’s supposed to be sympathetic or unapologetically evil.

[the-somwthing]

I never even really thought about it when the finale first dropped and I became a little hater and all but I’ve been thinking lately and like. What did Abolish even DO bro 😭 “my job is to help good vampires and put a stop to the evil ones” and throughout the entire series the only vampires he targets are Shelby and Pyro while the only vampires he helped were Owen and Scott 😭 go back to doing paperwork man 😭

[we-be-me]

I think it's interesting how VSMP associates attractiveness and beauty (concepts that are often rooted in ableism, racism, and colorism) with morality. This can be seen best when comparing the two starting vamps.

Scott is canonically very attractive. This is mentioned A LOT, by both other characters as well as Scott himself. It's particularly talked about a lot when characters are trying to defend Scott. Rather than try to defend his actions, there are several moments where multiple characters simply say that he's attractive.

Owen meanwhile doesn't have his appearance commented on that often. But we know that he is canonically sickly looking with scars on his skin from the lesions he had in life. He also has brown skin, which is a whole nother can of worms but I feel is important to mention because much of the idea of what traits are considered attractive is rooted in colorism and racism. While, as far as I remember, no one ever straight up calls Owen ugly, he is certainly never called attractive like Scott is. And he canonically has traits which are conventionally considered not attractive.

Throughout the series, Scott gets away with so much shit. He is the main villain of the series, and if you do not realize that please watch pretty much any pov again and use your critical thinking skills for fucks sake. The characters in the series as well as the narrative itself constantly diminish and apologize for his actions. As previously mentioned, half the time the reasoning characters give for their defense of him is "he's hot". As for Owen, he's very much a terrible person who is attempting to incite violence. However, Owen does not do as much violence as Scott does. And yet, he is often treated as the worst of the two by the characters, the narrative, and the fans. I wonder why...

That's sarcasm. The reason why is because he's a brown man whose actions are motivated by the anger that he feels due to the poor treatment that he received when he was a disabled human.

Owen is considered too far gone and needs to die. He is the problem. But Scott is given the grace to change and constantly has his horrible actions excused.

[the-somwthing]

Hello everyone who likes vsmp crit. I have become brave enough to rant about how much I hate episode 6. Sorry to everyone who is sick of the crit posts honestly tho if ur following me ur probably expecting it. Feel free to ask me my thoughts on anything btw maybe I’ll be more positive LOL

So what’s my problem with episode 6? Well, first of all, it’s not like specific scenes or anything. It’s just the main concept of episode 6, which is: “make it vampires vs humans instead of the other nonsense you guys were up to before”

Like, did they ever? Confirm? Whether it was planned or not that EVERY SINGLE VAMPIRE would join the Castle? It just seems so, so, SO scripted, that I find it extremely hard to believe nobody on the team went “guys, we need to get all the vampires on the same side, make something up quick!”

And like, I get the IDEA behind it. It WAS a little strange that the series is presented like “vampires vs humans” yet there were only like, 4 vampires on one side, and all the humans were fairly chill with vampires and had openly vampire teammates. But isn’t there a better way to do it? It just felt so poorly done.

Not to mention how they LITERALLY. THE EPISODE BEFORE. HAD A GREAT BIG SPEECH ABOUT “it’s not what you are, it’s who you are. We’re going to help protect everyone from those who wish us harm!!!” Like that’s a very nice message, and then BOOM!!! THROW THAT OUT!!! ALL OF THAT PROMISING TO STICK TOGETHER MEANT NOTHING!!!

Like. Episode 6 solidified me as firmly Team Human. Some vampires, like Shelby, and surprisingly some humans, like Legs, try to show a message in their episodes, which is “vampires aren’t inherently evil, they’re just people”. A perfectly good message that episode 6, though I know people will disagree, just completely trashes. People will disagree because “they had reasons! They aren’t evil!” AND THATS TRUE, BUT WHEN YOU JUST LOOK AT IT, YOU LITERALLY JUST HAVE EVERY VAMPIRE RANDOMLY DECIDING “humans need to die” WHILE THE HUMANS ARE BEING PERFECTLY NICE TO THEM, WHAT TF ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO THINK???

From a human pov, it quite LITERALLY looks like turning into a vampire just corrupts you or something, because EVERY. SINGLE. VAMPIRE. RANDOMLY TURNED AGAINST THEM (and are really freaking awful at explaining themselves btw). Honestly crazy how many times the narrative tries to screw over Legs specifically like rip “it’s not humans vs vampires it’s oakhurst vs those who wish us harm” sorry bud but god said “it’s humans vs vampires”

Okay but let’s look at all the vampires then, because it probably all makes total sense and flows really well right? Okay, so Scott and Owen are fine, they’re like, the leaders of the Castle Team. I do think the insistence on killing rather than turning is a bit strange since it’s just easier to turn than kill, but it feels fairly in character so whatever. It only felt off cuz they talked about it like it was a good strategy at times.

Shelby makes sense too, this is her family… and like, deciding that people need to start dying possibly is fine too. It does feel a little off since she’s trying to be good and so are the humans, but she did get pretty wronged by them so it’s actually fine from her POV imo.

Pyro should also be fine then, right? Core Four? NO. RIP CURE PLOTLINE 😭😭😭 It doesn’t feel too bad since his spiraling into not taking help makes enough sense, but still, the humans try SO SO SO hard to help him and he just starts spamming “you don’t understand” cuz it’s SO. SCRIPTED. He’s apologizing to them at times too like he doesn’t even WANNA. JUST GO BACK FOR THE CURE BRO!!! Pyro is by far not my biggest issue here tho, it still works for his tragic character, it just felt too rigged at times and also SUCKED for the humans trying to help!!!! LIKE SUCKED SO BAD!!!! AGAIN HUMANS ARE GIVEN 0 REASON TO BELIEVE IN VAMPIRES

And then there’s Avid. On paper, I’m not upset with Avid joining the Castle. Clearly, his character was meant to go that way. HOW EVER. Even THIS manages to get screwed up, due to how just GOOD the humans are. Avid is like “ok I’m still good guys” and everyone is like “ok we’ll help you” and things are going well, they’re bonding with vampire Avid, he has NO reason to betray them, then boom takes a single step into the Castle and suddenly it’s time to throw away everything. Legundo takes his eye off this kid for one second and boom. He’s not on your side anymore. Again, it’s mostly fine cuz Avid’s character was meant to go this way, but ALSO. Not only does it feel sort of odd. But it’s mostly in HINDSIGHT and OUT OF SERIES TALKS that we know he was intended to go this way. Viewers already found it very strange when Avid decided to get turned despite his characterization, and this only made that even worse. Tell someone nothing about VSMP and make them watch Avid’s POV, things will likely feel a little off (happened to me except I did it before ep6 so I was more prepared for ep6). I guess part of my problem is that, while he WAS intended to go full vampire, it’s framed as a good thing when it is testifiably not. But if I say that then ppl will act like I don’t understand the queer metaphor. I have issues with the queer metaphor but that’s not what this post is about so I’ll summarize it with “why is the metaphor’s queer expression Drinking Blood And Killing Innocent People”

And then Drift. Oh Drift. Honestly one of my least favorite parts of episode 6. I really, really, REALLY liked Drift and her POV. Before this episode. After it, I struggle to care as much as I did. It just feels like everything that was set up was… nothing? Idk. Let’s actually talk about it instead of vaguely describing my feelings. So, previous episode, she gets turned against her will and completely ignored by all the other vampires. She has no idea what to do now, but the Oakhurst people (including the town aligned vampires) support her and help her. Everyone here thinks what happened to her is wrong, including herself. But she decides to go to the Castle for… answers? Nothing wrong with this, she WAS a hit and run. Dine and dash. She literally asked how could you and bro said quite easily and ran off 😭. It is a life altering event, I can see why she’d feel a need to get “answers” even if they don’t actually exist (and she’s a detective so even more sense LOL). The problem? She and Scott go to have a chat about it, get easily distracted and interrupted, and overall NOTHING gets properly discussed. Drift has NO REASON to forgive Scott except “I guess being a vampire is cool and he’s hot” (I’m not joking she is always calling him hot and nobody talks about it LMAO). I could go talk more about this but I should stay purely on subject I realize. She has no reason to TURN AGAINST THE TOWN THAT SUPPORTED HER, but she does. And she does ask Cleo, so that’s probably part of it for sure. But still, kind of weird to turn against a whole bunch of people who never hurt you? Just for some people who aren’t above that?

I feel like, Avid and Drift both joined the Castle in big part because of Shelby, but idk if that’s good enough? You’re telling me, they spent ALL this time trying to get Shelby to join town, and when she says “no, I belong with the people who like to hurt others without consent or reason” they go “oh, we will too! yay!” YOU GUYS DIDN’T EVEN HANG OUT THAT OFTEN BE REAL. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IN THIS TRIO HAS A MADE UP VERSION OF THE OTHERS IN YOUR HEADS. Okay now’s probably not the time to talk about that, I like their friendship, I’m just not sure joining the Castle was the move for them.

Anyways Cleo! Haven’t watched their POV yet, though from hearing others it doesn’t sound like there was much of an explanation? Kind of just “yeah I was literally always Castle Team but they forgot to pick me up from school” which I honestly don’t think is shoehorned in because they WERE desecrating the castle beacon in ep3 and I think it suits their character to act the way they’d been acting. I’m really not so upset about Cleo joining the Castle, especially cuz they still play both sides. Still probably jarring for ppl getting used to them being in town LOL.

And finally Apo. Oh joys. This one drives me crazy. It drives me crazy because, it kind of makes perfect sense and makes me not upset, and also totally makes no sense and makes me upset. So basically, at first Apo is just being a double agent, that’s all fine! But then she finds out the only way out is if everyone is a vampire or everyone is a human. So as a vampire, she needs to remove all humans. It makes sense! It works fine! Issue! SHE WAS ALREADY GOING FOR THE CURE! WHY IS SHE LOCKING IN TEAM VAMPIRE?? I can make up a bunch of valid reasons but the issue is that’s me trying to justify it, not Apo. Make me not question it while I’m watching!!! Give me the walkthrough instead of quickly going “guess I have to kill my friends and help the people I hate”! What makes it worse to me is that it’s so obviously NOT what she should be doing, that of COURSE the next episode she takes it back and goes for the cure again. CUZ YEAH! WHY WEREN’T YOU DOING THAT BEFORE!! It again just makes episode 6 feel sososo rigged.

Like, “oh well the alternative wouldn’t be as interesting” YES IT WOULD! Let the story play out naturally, the game mechanics themselves enforce human vs vampire so eventually they’ll get there! But this just felt so rushed, and again unnatural, because people were switching sides for reasons that had nothing to do with the beacons and generally did not make a lot of sense. Which wouldn’t be SO bad, if it didn’t ALL HAPPEN AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. Least obvious admin stepping in and telling everyone to stop roleplaying moment.

Like idk, I feel like when I write it all down, it’s all broken down into little pieces that make it easy to digest and defend. But like. Just watch it. Just watch the series. Watch episode 6. It is SO jarring and unnatural feeling. If you really don’t get it, pick a human POV. It is EXTREMELY obvious from human POV just how RIDICULOUS this episode is.

And again I just HAVE to reiterate. Completely undoing all the “humans and vampires aren’t so different, vampires aren’t evil, we’re all people, we can work together” speeches sure was a choice they decided to make. Yup. Yup……… god I can’t imagine not being team Human.

[thegremlininyourcloset]

I really wish we had gotten more townie vampires. Apo and sort of Legs are the only ones who really count, and I have got to say that I am disappointed by it.

a good chunk of the early series, right up until episode 6 basically, was spent establishing that vampires are not inherently evil.

Legs and Cleo’s entire friendship. The big confession moment. Everything about shelvid and bloodletting.

and then episode 6 happened and…most of them went off and decided to be evil.

yes, every character in vsmp is morally ambiguous At Best, but…the mass defection to the side who’s goal is very clearly Fucking Killing Everyone feels…frustrating

no, the humans weren’t perfect, but compared to the coven?

yeah I know damn well who the side actually trying to do the right thing is.